ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Microplastics destabilize lipid membranes by mechanical stretching.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Microplastics in focus: a silent disruptor of liver health- a systematic review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Microplastics and nanoplastics in human toxicity: ROS-mediated mechanisms, cellular damage and systemic effects.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Toxic effects of MPs and Up GradeVeterinary research communications · 2026Article
- Assessing the Martini Force Field for Modeling Polyolefin Nanoplastics near Lipid Membranes.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2026Article
- Investigating the microwave degradation of polypropylene microplastics and their impact on human intestinal cell models.Toxicology reports · 2026Article
- Photoaged microplastics disrupt endothelial stretch-sensitive ion channels to impair calcium signaling and vascular integrity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Polyethylene nano- and microplastics trigger metabolic stress responses in human vaginal epithelial cells.Cell death discovery · 2026Article
- Combined Effects of Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Zn(II), Cu(II), and Metolachlor onMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Polystyrene-degrading bacteria modulate host stress and toxicity responses to microplastic exposure in Caenorhabditis elegans.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Microplastic induced cascades of multiple cell death pathways: inflammation, immune imbalance, and cancer susceptibility.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Taurine attenuates polystyrene microplastic-associated oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptotic changes in the spleen of mice.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Polystyrene microplastics internalization by term placental chorionic villi explants.Placenta · 2026Review
- Freeze-thaw cycles and biodegradable microplastics alter the microbial degradation of atrazine in mollisols.Eco-Environment & Health · 2025Article
- Role of Nanoplastics in Decreasing the Intestinal Microbiome Ratio: A Review of the Scope of Polystyrene.Toxics · 2025Review
- Polystyrene Micro- and Nanoplastic Exposure Triggers an Activation and Stress Response in Human Astrocytes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Dysfunctional digestive tract highlights the metabolic hallmarks of nanoplastic-exacerbated Parkinson's pathology.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
- Review
- Plastic induced urinary tract disease and dysfunction: a scoping review.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2025Article
- Micro-nanoplastic induced cardiovascular disease and dysfunction: a scoping review.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2025Article
- Biomimetic layered, ecological, advanced, multi-functional film for sustainable packaging.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Estimated millions of tons of plastic are dumped annually into oceans. Plastic has been produced only for 70 y, but the exponential rise of mass production leads to its widespread proliferation in all environments. As a consequence of their large abundance globally, microplastics are also found in many living organisms including humans. While the health impact of digested microplastics on living organisms is debatable, we reveal a physical mechanism of mechanical stretching of model cell lipid membranes induced by adsorbed micrometer-sized microplastic particles most commonly found in oceans. Combining experimental and theoretical approaches, we demonstrate that microplastic particles adsorbed on lipid membranes considerably increase membrane tension even at low particle concentrations. Each particle adsorbed at the membrane consumes surface area that is proportional to the contact area between particle and the membrane. Although lipid membranes are liquid and able to accommodate mechanical stress, the relaxation time is much slower than the rate of adsorption; thus, the cumulative effect from arriving microplastic particles to the membrane leads to the global reduction of the membrane area and increase of membrane tension. This, in turn, leads to a strong reduction of membrane lifetime. The effect of mechanical stretching of microplastics on living cells membranes was demonstrated by using the aspiration micropipette technique on red blood cells. The described mechanical stretching mechanism on lipid bilayers may provide better understanding of the impact of microplastic particles in living systems.
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